Sales Pitch at end of Rewards Call
 

I called in today as one of my reservations posted to Choice instead of Amtrak. That all went fine, but at the end of the call I was told I had an offer of 10,000 points or $100 (or something like that) and was being transferred. Upon being transferred, I got a pushy salesman trying to sell me on a 4 day, 3 night package for $149 with a $150 Visa gift card if I listen to a "2 hour VIP presentation" on the Ascend collection.

I have no idea what it was about, and the agent I spoke with refused to give me any information about the offer via email and said that I had to at least make the reservation today. It felt very pushy, almost to the point that I was concerned it was a scam. If this is the way Choice treats members when they call in (for what it's worth, I'm a Gold member and called in via the elite line) it sours my view of the brand as a whole.

Anyone else have this experience? Any more details on what it might be?

It seems like there is upsell with many businesses these days.

The best solution is to just hang up.

That's what I wound up having to do. After the agent refused to email me any information and refused to understand where I was coming from, I told him "I'm hanging up now" and hung up.

I'll admit, while it may not be an overarching decision on where I stay next month, my soft lean towards the Wyndham property in Portland next month is looking like a better and better choice.

I use Wyndham a lot, but their IT sucks big time. Almost no way to pull up a reservation without knowing the res #, and I've had the Wyndham site make duplicate res's a few times where the property called and asked if i actually wanted two on the same day.

I'm not sure one annoying sales pitch would make me change any decisions.

;)

Usually these don't end with just one. They will use some very enticing pitches to get you to accept listening and that's when they try to set the hook and get you to sign up. HGVC is very bad about calling for referrals that I have programed their number to go directly to VM and not even ring my phone. And they don't leave messages.

Just like the popups I get asking for feedback on websites, I just say NO. :)

At least with Choice you can do that. Marriott calls me several times a week. It is always from 847-867-xxxx. The problem is that xxxx always changes, It is also a problem that I have some business calls from 847-867-xxxx.

I've also had that with IHG call. At the end of the call they put me through to sales pitch for x days somewhere for a price. After asking for email of the detail and they refused, I hung hup.

At some point I'm going to go to another one of these presentations...with a childhood friend of mine in tow who happens to be a get-people-out-of-timeshares lawyer. I'm torn between asking "Why the hell should I pay anything when people are offering weeks here for $1 on eBay" loudly enough to disrupt a few hard sells around me, having /him/ ask a bunch of tough questions at just a few decibels above standard conversation level, and just having him hand out a few business cards.

(Yes, I want to make these people twitch. It's nothing personal, it's just business. In fact, I think if he hands out enough cards we might get him to write part of the initial buy-in cost off on his taxes.)